The 2015 Tree and Flower Awards will begin later on today. Since previous winners cannot compete (except for stories that competed in the WIP category, but are now complete), here are links to stories which won in previous years. Stories that competed, but did not place are still eligible. Please check these lists to be certain that your nomination is eligible.

The only other eligibility requirements are that the story must be posted at the Many Paths to Tread Archive prior to July 26 of this year.

Okay, that makes sense. I was just confused because in practice, at least, it looked like every nominated story did get at least an honorable mention. But I only started following the awards recently, so maybe that's not always true?

It is only that way sometimes: if there are, say 7 or 8 stories nominated in a category, and there are no ties, then there will be only 4 that place: 1,2,3, HM. But if there are only 4 in a category with no ties, then all will win.

But say there are 5 stories and a tie, for HM all will win in that category. Or with more stories, you might have ties for 1st or 2nd or 3rd, and no ties for HM.

A lot of it depends on participation: the fewer voters we have, the more the likelihood of ties; the more voters the less the likelihood.